USS Rathburne selected as on
of the ships to be used as target in RIMPAC war games.

Part of this year's maritime training
exercise called RIMPAC 2002 (Rim of the Pacific) which started on 25th
of June 2002, will be a "sinkex" in which decommissioned naval vessels
become targets for the guns, missiles, torpedoes and rockets of U.S. and
allied warships and jet fighters.

All three have been part of the
Navy's "ghost fleet" at Pearl Harbor since they were removed from the naval
register -- the Holt since 1992 and the White Plains and the Rathburne
since 1995 -- waiting to be scrapped, sold to another country or sunk.

Navy officials say the nearly
10-month war on terrorism has significantly cut back this year's RIMPAC
exercise, which is still billed as the largest maritime exercise in the
world.

If anyone that made the final
cruise and de-commissioning cermony and can provide ships history please
do so to email address listed below. Also if anybody visited the "ghost fleet" and took pictures please submit for your follow shipmates viewing.